I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automotive vehicles and, more particularly, to a garnish assembly for an automotive pillar having an applied load displacement structure.
II. Description of Relevant Art
In modern day automotive vehicles, the automotive frame pillars are covered by a decorative garnish. This garnish is typically made of a synthetic material, such as a polymeric material.
Such automotive vehicles further typically include handgrips that are attached to the pillar to facilitate the entry and exit of passengers from the passenger compartment of the vehicle. These handgrips are conventionally bolted to a bracket secured to the pillar so that the fastener extends both through the handle and garnish and simultaneously secures both the garnish and handgrip to the bracket and thus to the pillar.
There are governmental safety regulations that require that the garnish cushion head impacts of the type that may occur during an automotive accident. In order to meet such governmental regulations, the previously known automotive vehicles have included padded areas attached to or formed as a part of the pillar garnish.
Such padded areas on the garnish have proven sufficient to meet the government safety regulations, but disadvantageously increase the overall cost of the garnish as well as the weight of the garnish. Such increased weight of the garnish, in turn, adversely affects the overall efficiency and fuel economy for the vehicle.